PULASKI ELECTION COMMISSION: Discusses settlement of civil rights lawsuit.

The Pulaski County Election Commission voted tonight to accept a settlement offer in a federal civil rights lawsuit by Barry Haas over former Commission Chair Kristi Stahr’s refusal to let him work in an election because of his political beliefs.

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The settlement offer had several provisions. For one, Haas would dismiss the case in exchange for an opportunity to speak before the commission at a scheduled meeting and Stahr would be given notice of that meeting. The settlement details that Stahr objected to his being certified as a poll worker by saying on the record that Haas wouldn’t uphold the law. The settlement says no evidence of that was ever provided and he’d worked in elections since then.   It says that David Scott, current commission chair, would meet with Haas one-on-one about the Sept. 21 meeting at which he joined Stahr in approving a list of election workers that did not include Haas.* It provides that in the future commissioners receive training on the First and 14th Amendments and the federal law that provides an individual the right to sue state government employees for civil rights violations.

The settlement will have a financial cost. It provides that the commission will pay court costs as provided by federal court rules. The commission was told by attorney Brett Taylor that the Association of Arkansas Counties s Risk Management fund would pay the cost. The county pays fees to the association. No estimate of the cost was given.

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Haas issued a statement:

On September 7, 2021 I was wrongly accused by former Pulaski Co. Election Commission Chair Kristi Stahr during a public commission meeting that I would refuse to comply with the state’s voter ID law. Stahr claimed she had seen comments made by me to that effect on social media. Stahr provided no evidence of her slanderous accusation, and for good reason- there is no evidence on social media or elsewhere I have ever refused to comply with any state or federal election law. Stahr retaliated against me by refusing to certify me as a poll worker for an upcoming special election.

As a poll worker for roughly the past 20 years and a former chief judge of one of the busiest polling places in Pulaski Couty, prior to last September 7 I had never been accused of failing to do my sworn duty as a poll worker. Poll workers take an oath at the start of each day they work swearing we will obey and enforce all election laws. We take our oath of office seriously, and do our jobs to the best of our ability. We poll workers are Democrats, Republicans and Independents ensuring we can have elections.

It has taken more than a year to finally clear my name with today’s acceptance by the current Pulaski Co. Election Commission of a settlement offer where they acknowledged former commission chair Stahr’s allegations lacked a scintilla of evidence.

Hopefully, this legal settlement will discourage other county election commissioners in Arkansas who may wish to act in a similar partisan way from doing so. That and clearing my good name were my sole motivations for filing suit against the Pulaski Co. Election Commission in the first place.

 

Scott made the motion to approve the settlement. There was no discussion.

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Haas, who’s worked for 20 years in various roles in elections in Pulaski County, was a plaintiff in lawsuits challenging the state voter ID law. That long rankled Stahr and a then-cohort on the Commission, Evelyn Gomez, who had been an attorney defending the ID law, which discriminates against large swaths of voters. One lawsuit over the ID law succeeded in striking down the law, but a Constitutional amendment to reinforce the measure survived a subsequent court challenge. Haas was a plaintiff in both cases.

In September 2021, at Stahr’s urging, the Commission, with Stahr and new Commissioner Scott voting affirmatively, voted not to allow Haas to work in a special school board election. Then Democratic commissioner Susan Inman questioned the decision.

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The ACLU sued on behalf of Haas. The lawsuit said Stahr claimed he was refusing in person and on social media to follow the photo ID law. Said Haas at the time, “I previously challenged Arkansas’s voter-identification laws requiring photo I.D. in court, because I believed the laws were unconstitutional and bad policy. Contrary to Chairwoman Stahr’s false claims, I have always upheld all election laws, never said I would refuse to follow the law and I do not maintain any social media accounts.”

Since the lawsuit was filed, Haas has resumed work in elections without incident. He is scheduled to work processing absentee ballots again this election.

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The suit argued the decision to fire Haas violated his First Amendment rights and also deprived him of employment without allowing him to defend himself, a 14th Amendment violation

The suit didn’t sue commissioners individually for damages but named as defendants those who were commissioners at the time — Stahr, Scott and Inman. Scott has become chairman of the commission since Stahr resigned and is joined now on the three-member commission by Republican Michael Massuco and Democrat Sydney Rasch.

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Scott scheduled today’s discussion last week. He said the commission’s attorney, Brett Taylor of Cross, Gunter, Witherspoon and Galchus, had asked the commission to consider a proposed settlement. The case is scheduled for trial next year. Taylor will prepare a formal response to the settlement offer which then would be filed in federal court.

I’ve sent an email to Stahr seeking comment. After resigning from the election commission, she went to work as communications special projects manager for the Foundation for Government Accountability, a right-wing think tank in Florida that particularly attacks public assistance programs.

 

*CORRECTION: I originally wrote that Scott joined Stahr in voting to strike Haas’ name from the list of election workers. Haas said that after Stahr objected to his being certified but before the commission voted on the list of poll workers to certify, in an attempt to defuse the situation former election commission staff member Shawn Camp suggested they replace the original list of poll workers that included his name with a revised list that did not include his name.  That revised list was approved by the commission.

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